These Attacks Happened Days Before Brussels — But You Probably Didn't Hear About Them

The city of Brussels was rocked by explosions Tuesday morning, leavingat least 34 people dead and 230 injured. The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack which came just days after Paris massacre suspect Salah Abdeslam was apprehended in the Molenbeek district of Brussels. The most recent spasm of European violence has already sent ripples of grief in media and Facebook feeds around the world.

so horrific to hear what happened in brussels.. but why didn't ankara get the same kind of attention?

Perhaps if people were just as vocal about the tragedies in #Ankara as they've been about #Brussels I'd take their feigned outrage seriously

"Can you imagine the victims? The teenagers catching the bus to go home, the grandparents walking into town, the people waiting for a taxi after a long day laughing and socializing in the sun," Taylor asked in his March 13 post. "It is very easy to look at terror attacks that happen in London, in New York, in Paris and feel pain and sadness for those victims, so why is it not the same for Ankara?"

Media (and social media) bias has been present in coverage of a number of terrorist attacks in Western countries, leaving in their shadows the stories of similar attacks in Muslim or developing countries. A day before the Paris attacks that left 130 dead, 43 died in a bombing in Beirut that went almost unrecognized. And in January 2015, the 17 left dead after an attack on the Paris office of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo obscured the roughly 2,000 killed by the Islamic militant group Boko Haram in the Nigerian town of Baga.

While coverage imbalances are often corrected after the fact, the latest example from Turkey shows it continues to be a potent issue.

March 23, 2016, 10:54 a.m.: This story has been updated.

Get the five stories that will challenge you to rethink the world by signing up for MicCheck Daily.